Apartment Life #373

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 26 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 26 years here in a weekly blog post.

On Monday while I was out walking Falcor first thing in the morning I saw a lady that used to be homeless in the neighborhood that goes by "Chocolate" slap david (Chicken Wing) across the face. He lives in our pool courtyard. He turned to leave and walked into the alley across the street and I heard her screaming at him. As they came back onto the street I was on, Chocolate saw some of the other homeless people and started screaming for someone to call the police that he robbed her and took her money. But by that time Chicken Wing was standing with Long haired guy, dreads, creepy guy and crazy guy. So I'm not sure who she was talking about but most likely it was chicken wing since she slapped him across the face. The guys started walking into our alley and she followed them screaming to call the police that he stole her money. She has a phone, she could have called the police but she didn't. 

The very next morning, I found out that Chocolate had died from a drug overdose. My daughter talked to Chocolate's sister who lives in my courtyard and they think it was foul play because she had gotten her life together recently. She had a house, was seeing a probation officer, and was wearing an ankle monitor. She was being drug tested so she wasn't doing drugs.  I talked to several homeless people in the neighborhood and they said she was found in her home with 2 drug needles in her arm. Her sister confirmed that and that the police think someone did this to her deliberately. I talked to Chocolate's mom (Who used to be my neighbor) and she thinks someone killed her deliberately too. I seriously doubt she did that to herself. The coroner is doing an autopsy and they are doing a drug analysis. I'm just guessing but I bet it was Fentanyl. 

If you've been reading my weekly posts for a while you know I told you that several homeless people have died from drug overdoses in my neighborhood in this post. 

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Monday afternoon screamer lady was out walking up and down the sidewalk in front of my apartment building with a cart. As I've told you before, she is not homeless, she just has a lot of mental problems. She walks up and down the street just screaming nonsense. She was here 26 years ago when we first moved here but back then she was the neighborhood prostitute. She propositioned Ken multiple times and she was mad that he kept turning her down. lol

Mostly everyone just ignores her and lets her do her screaming. But Monday night at 9PM I had gone to bed early and all of the sudden this woman was standing right in front of my bedroom window screaming. When I say right in front of my bedroom window, I mean she was about a foot away from my window, facing my window. Why the hell are you screaming into my bedroom window, lady? She woke Falcor and me up and I was pissed. So I threw open my bedroom window and yelled at her to go somewhere else. I shut the window and thought that was the end of it. 

Nope. She moved to the street and screamed some more. So I opened the bedroom window again and screamed back at her. I said, "Shut the f*ck up, people are trying to sleep. Don't make me come out there. I can scream too." 

She screamed once more and moved on. But by that time I was too riled up to go back to sleep. I opened my bedroom door to tell my daughter I was fine and she was laughing because I don't get mad too often. Yeah, don't wake me up and I won't get mad. 

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This was spray painted on the other side my my alleys wall. So I Googled WSL 13 and found this means West Side Locos- A street gang from California- it's gang graffiti. That's my apartment complex behind the wall this is painted on. Isn't that wonderful? I know there are gangs in the area because I see graffiti all over the place. It gets painted over all the time but I got a picture before maintenance painted over it this time. 

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Last week I told you my locks got changed because the office didn't have a key. This week everyone had notices on their doors that on Thursday Maintenance and the manager would be coming through to check and make sure they had keys to everyone's door. But why did they put the notice on my door too? They just changed the locks. Idiots. It was the same maintenance guy who changed my locks who was putting out notices. So he knew. 

And then the next day, Thursday when they were supposed to show up for the lock inspection..they never showed up. lol But on Friday they were walking around knocking on certain doors. They never knocked on mine (Why did I get a notice?) 9 Times out of 10 they never show up for whatever 'inspections' they are doing on the day they say they are going to do it. 

Since it's not the first time that has happened, it didn't even surprise me. This happens almost every single time they say they are going to come and inspect something. The AC inspection came 2 months after they sent me an email that they were doing it that week. 

The high this week was 108F/42C

The low this week was 80F/26C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made.

One Pan Roasted Chicken and Vegies

You will need: 

1/2 bell pepper- chopped

1/2 yellow onion- chopped

2 carrots- chopped

1 cup broccoli florets

1 chicken breast

1/2 tsp. Chili powder

1/2 Cumin

1/2 tsp. McCormick Mesquite seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

No calorie cooking spray

What to do: 

Spray a baking sheet with No calorie cooking spray.

Add all the vegetables and chicken breast to the pan. Spray everything with more of the No calorie cooking spray. Add spices to the chicken and vegetables and bake in a 400F oven for 30 minutes. 

My daughter and I halved the chicken breast because it was a big one.

This made two servings. Each serving was 300 calories and 15 carbs. 

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

I was sent the Arctic Air Pocket Personal Air Cooler- from Life Hack Collective. 

I like the little rechargeable fan. You can fill a small well with water and have a mister with it as well. It works pretty well. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Kiran by Kenzie Kelly

 

Book Description

Go to space, they said. It’ll be an adventure, they said. They had no idea.

Cora’s boring job as a lab tech on board the space station Shangris is interrupted when two ships fall out of hyperspace and put Earth smack in the middle of an intergalactic war. She’s not sure which side she should be on, but the built-like-a-brick-house blue warrior who rescues her from the crumbling station could be more evil than Hannibal Lecter and she might not care. Especially if he’s in to eating people. But not in the creepy way.

The Talia’s captain ordered Kiran and his team to search the damaged station for survivors, and kill any Scozid he might find. The squid-like humanoids were known for using more primitive races for barbaric experiments. The Talia was tailing this particular ship when they jumped blindly into an unknown sector of the galaxy. With Ka’atari mates being as rare as a three-headed givuthde, he never dreamed his would be one of the survivors.

Things get even more complicated when another hyperspace jump, an unruly alien pet, and politicians get involved.

Hunka hunka blue alien love, action packed, steamy sci-fi romance fun!

This novella is the first in the Ka'atari Warriors series and has a guaranteed happily ever after and no cliffhangers.

My Review

Cora works in a lab on a space station and things are going alright when all at once two spaceships appear and are fighting. The good aliens are fighting against the bad aliens who want to take over other alien planets. Cora's space station gets caught up in the fight and is about to be destroyed when aliens from one of the ships come to rescue her and the other survivors. She's not trusting him at first but they know the space station is about to be destroyed and he won't leave the humans there to die so he doesn't give Cora or the others a choice. 

Once back on Kiran's ship though, something happens so that the ship they're on slips into a worm hole of sorts and they move quickly away from Earth and not sure if they'll be able to get back. Cora and the other females quickly find out that they are mates to some of the aliens on the ship so that makes things interesting. The mating heat affects some of them to the point that they can't stop themselves from mating with the aliens, not that they mind since they are big, strong, gorgeous and nice to them. 

I really liked Kiren and the other aliens on the ship. There were different aliens all working together against the bad aliens that were trying to take over planets. 

The different characters in this book made it so much fun to read including a sentient animal that befriends Cora to the horror or Kiran and some of the others on the ship. Everyone was scared of this animal and Cora is able to telepathically talk to her which helped make them fast friends. 

The non stop adventure, the fighting the bad aliens and romance made this such a fun book to read. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

For a few days this week we had mostly 90F/32C instead of the higher temps I was expecting. I think it was mostly because of all the clouds we had this week. Monday we didn't have rain but the clouds were nice. 

I like seeing the big white puffy clouds against the bright blue sky.

So many clouds. No rain though.

While we didn't get any rain on Tuesday, it was nice to see. 

This was a huge dark cloud Wednesday evening.

The light hitting this made it look so ethereal. 

And then Thursday the darker clouds moved in.

A little later on Thursday I saw darker clouds moving my way and saw some rain coming down out of them off in the distance. Right here by the dumpster/fence is where we had the small fire I talked about of Sunday. 

Around 2:30PM on Thursday this huge black cloud slowly came over my area and I figured we would get some rain out of it so I took Falcor out before it rained. This is behind my apartment complex and I walked out front to take another picture of the other side of the cloud because it was so big.

This is the cloud from the street side of my complex. 

And it did indeed rain for about 20 minutes. At least it was a bit cooler for a few days.

Book Review: Kai by Luna Hunter

 

Book Description

General Kai cannot believe the naivety of the humans. From his cloaked ship the Dragan Warlord watches them walk straight into a trap — but when he sees there are females among their numbers, his throat tightens with anger.

Females should be protected. Treasured. Worshiped.

Especially one as beautiful as her. The one with the red-hair and the green eyes. Her human physique — so different from what he is used to, so soft and curvy — awakens strange, new feelings inside the powerful warrior.

Forbidden feelings.

The Emperor forbids taking a non-Dragan as a pleasure-mate.

And yet, this human female needs Kai’s protection… and Kai needs her touch more than he’s ever needed anything in his life.

Can the alien general truly risk everything for this human female?

…

Frek the Emperor and his rules.

General Kai’s taking her. And he’s not just making her his pleasure-mate, either.

The human female shall be his wife.

My Review

Kai is a Dragan warlord and commander of his ship. When he spots a human vessel head straight for disaster he's not sure he should step in until he notices that there are women in trouble and then he can't help but lend a hand. 

The humans are off course and stuck in some sort of spatial anomaly and so are the other ships in this area. But when he meets Astra, he feels a pull towards her even though his emperor would forbid their relationship. 

There's a great twist in what's causing the spatial anomaly and how they have to work together with the enemy in order to get free. Oh and don't get me started on the huge, evil, flesh eating, alien spiders! I don't mind the thought of aliens visiting Earth but they better not come looking like enormous insects. 

I really liked the ending and how things worked out. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures this week courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #372

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 26 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 26 years here in a weekly blog post.  

Tuesday morning on our first walk of the day I noticed some burnt trash on the ground by the dumpster in our alley. Looked to me like someone put some paper into the white bucket by the fence and set it on fire because the inside of the bucket is charred one side is completely melted. I didn't see the fire dept. come so I think someone else just threw some water on the fire.

I know it's hard to tell the difference in what's wet from the water and what's burnt.

There's a lot of trash on the ground for some reason. And a lot of it was burned. Falcor was interested in all the burnt material. lol 

Part of this cardboard box was burned.

Most of the trash up against the fence is burned or charred, you can see all the charred remains from paper on the outside of the fence. 

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I've been meaning to post this picture for a while but keep forgetting. It's a picture of the community bbq that sits in the pool courtyard. Any resident of this apartment complex can use it. We aren't allowed to have bbq's (Even though a lot of residents do) so they have this for us to use. And lots of residents use it.

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A little backstory... About 2 years ago the maintenance guy that used to work here knocked on my door and told me he needed to change the locks because the office didn't have keys to my door. He said he would be back with the lock and never showed back up. So I already knew that the office did not have keys to my apartment

.

On Saturday (yesterday) a different maintenance guy knocked on my door and said he needed to change the locks on the door because the office didn't have keys to my apartment.

I said ok, go ahead. He looked stunned and said, "Oh, right now?"

I said yeah. 

He looked puzzled for a moment and then said, "Uh yeah I can do it now. Let me go get my tools and the locks." 

So you come to my door wanting to change the locks but don't bring anything to change the locks and seem stunned that I agreed to it? Wtf? 

So he came back about 30 minutes later and changed the locks. LOL I swear this place hires idiots.

The high this week was 103F/39C

The low this week was 73F/22C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

My Daughter and I are trying to eat more healthy so I thought I would share some pictures on Saturday's of what we've made.

Seafood and Sugar Snap Peas

You will need: 

2 fillets of whiting or fish filet of your choice

2 cups sugar snap peas

6 mushrooms

1 tsp. butter

6 large shrimp

12 ounces of imitation crab meat

2 green onions-diced

2 stalks of celery-diced

3 TBSP Mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning

Juice of 1 lemon

No calorie cooking spray

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp. Paprika

What to do: 

Trim the sugar snap peas ends. Drop them into boiling water for 3 minutes. Then take them out and add them to a hot pan sprayed with no calorie cooking spray. Season with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. If you like your mushrooms more done, cook them in the pan first while the peas are boiling. 

Add the Whiting fillets and shrimp to a pan sprayed with a little butter flavored cooking spray and 1 tsp. butter. Season with Old Bay, salt, pepper, paprika and lemon juice. Cook until done. 

Recipe for Crab Salad

Shred or slice the imitation crab meat into very thin strips. I also cut some of the crab meat into small cubes for contrasting consistencies. Add the mayo, shredded imitation crab, diced green onions and diced celery. Mix well and refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.

I've made this before but have cut the amount of mayo in half recently to cut out some of the calories. You can always add more mayo if you like it that way. 

A while back I had a bad reaction to shrimp and thought my allergy had gotten worse. But as long as I get raw shrimp and cook them myself I don't have the bad reaction. It's only the cooked shrimp(from the store) that makes my hands itchy. Which is weird. So I'm eating shrimp again. lol I still have to wear rubber gloves to peel them though because I get blisters on my hands if I handle raw shrimp. I love the stuff though. 

Would you try this for a meal?

This meal has 400 calories and 20 carbs. 

What's in Your Cabinet?

 

Do you have a display/curio cabinet? What's in it? 

I thought I would share some of the items in my cabinet. 

The candle my brother gave me for my birthday a few years ago. A stuffed guinea pig that my mom bought in the hospital gift shop when I ended up in the ER back in 2011 when I found out I had an irregular heartbeat. I still have an irregular heartbeat but have been told it's nothing to worry about. The picture is of my grandparents. The glass curio shelf in the back was my moms. 

A fur lined vase that I inherited from my mom when she passed. 

A small stained glass jewelry box.

I bought this unicorn back in 1990. 

2 cat statues that have funny looks on their faces. 

Another unicorn stature I bought back in 1990. 

This is a glass shelf my mom had. It has a picture of my grandmother and her brother. A tiny vase, tiny salt and pepper shakers, 2 small shot glasses, a small bottle of my moms perfume and a Swarovski Crystal clam figurine. 

Another little jewelry box.  These little jewelry boxes used to be really popular back in the 90's. So I have a few kinds. 

Book Review: Just Another Love Spell by S.R. Griffith

 

Book Description

There’s a naked man in my living room!

I don’t know why, but I wanted that goldfish at the carnival. Maybe I’m really lonely. I lost the fish but in a moment of sorrow, I said a spam love spell that popped into my box. The next morning, I woke up to a naked man in my living room!

What he’s telling me is like a fairy tale. He says it’s “true love’s kiss” –yes, I kissed the fish bowl. I’m tempted to fall into the fairy tale except the world isn’t a fairy tale. I’m stressed out but he keeps promising forever.

Will I accept my own personal fairy tale before others try to separate us?

My Review

Rose and Thomas meet when she gets a goldfish from a man at a carnival. She's not sure what to do with the goldfish so she goes to sleep and intends to give him a new tank in the morning. But Thomas is a goldfigh shifter that was cursed to stay in his fish form until the curse is broken and Rose breaks the curse. 

But when Rose wakes up the next morning and there's a very naked man in her living room telling her that he's a goldfish shifter and she broke the curse, she's not believing most of what he says at first. But she can't throw a naked man outside with nothing so she helps him get some clothes and when he shows her that magic exists, she has no choice but to believe what he's been telling her. 

These two spend time together and start to fall for each other. Thomas is a great character and I loved how he was with Rose. It was such a cute, quick read. This was my first goldfish shifter which was fun. I felt bad for Thomas since he had been stuck in his fish form for a long time and had to adjust to how things are now in the world. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

We don't get a lot of cloud cover this time of year usually so when it does happen I'm happy about it. It helps on the hot days.

A few clouds during the day can help when the sun is beating down on you. 

On Monday there were a few clouds at sunset.

But on Tuesday there were so many more big clouds at sunset. The wind was blowing and I saw lightning off in the distance. Of course we didn't get any rain but when I walked Falcor at 8PM it was only 90F/32C which was nicer than it had been during the day. It was a lot hotter that day. 

At least we still get a few cloudy days and nights. I'll take it. I'm not a sunshiny day type person, can you tell? lol All those bright blue skies and sunshine all day is just not for me. I will take a cloudy, dreary, overcast day anytime over those bright sunshine days. I know I'm the complete opposite of most people. That's ok. I never proclaimed to be normal. 

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One Of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Mike and Dalene

Before my parents got married my dad had two friends named Mike and Dalene. They were a couple and my dad's best friends. When Mike got married, my dad paid for it and then later when my parents got married, Mike paid for it. After my parents got married Mike and Dalene broke up and Mike didn't take it so well. So a few months later when Mike found out that Dalene was dating another guy, Mike was really upset, took his gun with him and shot and killed Dalene's boyfriend. 

Mike was arrested and went to jail for murder. I was a little kid and don't remember much but he only did 5 years in prison for it for some reason. I was 8 years old when Mike got out of prison and came by our house. I remember he was a big guy and wore dark sunglasses all the time. I remember my dad letting Mike take my younger brother and I to the store and Mike buying us both coats. When we got home my mom was freaking out because she had no idea where Mike had taken us and my dad thought it was funny, I was just happy with my new coat. 

Sometime in the next year after Mike got out of prison, Dalene overdosed on sleeping pills. Mike had been trying to get back together with her and she wasn't having it. Within a few months of Dalene dying, Mike also killed himself by overdosing on pills of some kind. I remember when Dalene died that we all went to her motel/apartment  (I'm not sure which it was) and gathered up her things and took them home. I don't remember much except that the door to her place was red and the walls inside her place were also red. 

My parents had both Mike and Dalene cremated (I guess they didn't have any other family?) and we went out to where there was a lake during the Wintertime, because I remember the snow on the ground and they spread their ashes in the water. I remember some details but other details came from my dad telling me the story of them all the time as I got older. 

Links to past stories

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2025

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Happy Raturday!

 

"Avocado is good for you"

"Sharing avocado is fine as long as I get my share"

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*